Eugene, Oregon The defendants, on or about December 9. 2009, in Lane County, Oregon, under circumstances manifesting and extreme indifference to the value of human life, did unlawfully and recklessly cause the death by neglect and maltreatment of Jeanette Marie Maples, a dependent person born August 9, 1993, contrary to statute and against the peace and dignity of the State of Oregon; The State further alleges this crime occurred in the course of, or as a result of, intentional maiming and torture of the victim. DATED December 10, 2009 at Eugene, Lane County, Oregon. ORS 163.095 (1)(c)(B)*

Maiming. A 16-year-old. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary: Maim implies the loss or injury of a bodily member through violence. Wiki defines maiming as an act or physical injury that degrades the appearance or function of any living body, usually without causing death. So either this sweet and loving couple got bored with torturing this child or they got a little carried away with the festivities because when 911 was called and the emergency workers arrived, Jeanette Maples was lying in the bathtub injured and unconscious. She was pronounced dead at the hospital.

Authorities have not released details regarding the exact abuse and torture this child suffered but were quick to explain the circumstances leading to her death affected detectives working the case. Documents filed in court state the alleged murder was caused “by neglect and maltreatment” and “occurred in the course of, or as a result of, intentional maiming and torture of the victim.” This was done by the hands of her mother and step-father, Angela and Richard McAnulty.

Outside of the senseless and savage death of this child is the thought that her death could have been prevented. Although she was registered as being homeschooled, Jeanette had some contact with her step-grandmother who noticed signs of abuse months prior to her death. In an interview, she described seeing a split and swollen lip and what looked like hair being yanked out by the fist full. Not accepting the standard, “she fell down the stairs” explanation that every single asshole abuser in the world uses, granny took a friend’s advice and called the state’s child abuse hotline. Many times. They did absolutely nothing and a child was tortured to death. Lynn McAnulty naturally regrets not calling the police – she simply didn’t want to lose contact with her grandchildren. I cannot imagine having to endure the torture Lynn will live with – feeling she should have done more to protect this child. I also feel, with multiple calls to a child abuse hotline, a damn surprise visit from that agency should have taken place. I guess I’m not the only one with that view: Dr. Bruce Goldberg, who is the director for Oregon’s Human Services has ordered an inside investigation into the caseworkers who may have been assigned this case. Although it’s too late for the child, it’s almost refreshing to not have a department-head cry, “we’re so over-worked” or “we did everything possible – it’s not our fault”.

Two other children who were living in the home were taken into protective custody, a 12-year-old girl and a 5-year-old boy. It’s not known at this time, if they were abused as well.

Angela McAnulty (41) and Richard McAnulty (40) were arrested on charges of murder by abuse. Thank God the death of these two sadistic people may be on the table. If they can’t take themselves out of the gene pool, I vote for doing it for them.

Lynn McAnulty, a Leaburg resident whose son married Jeanette’s mother seven years ago, said she first noticed in August that the always-shy teen appeared dangerously unhealthy.

McAnulty said she called state child welfare officials following that visit — but falsely claimed to be a neighbor because she said she feared that revealing her true identity could prevent her from visiting Jeanette and the girl’s two younger half-siblings.

“I told the person I talked to that she had lost a lot of weight,” Mc Anulty said. “They said maybe she had a medical problem, or maybe she’s anorexic. I know that wasn’t what was going on.”

McAnulty said she saw Jeanette just a handful of times during the next four months. Each visit, she said, prompted her to make another anonymous call to state officials. But she said they never followed up with a visit to Jeanette’s home.

“They never responded,” Mc Anulty said. “The first time I called they should have gone out there.”

Shortly before Lynn McAnulty left her home en route for the hospital, she said she received a phone call from her panicked daughter-in-law.

“She called me crying and screaming and saying, ‘Something’s wrong with Jeanette,’ ” Lynn Mc Anulty recalled. “She said, ‘She’s cold and we can’t get her up.’ I said, ‘Did you call 911?’ and she said, ‘No, I don’t want to go to jail.’ ”

Lynn McAnulty said she then demanded to speak with her son, a 40-year-old long-haul truck driver who had been healing at home from open heart surgery he underwent in August following a heart attack.

“I told him he’d better call 911 himself, or that I’d be on my way with the police,” she said, adding that she called back moments later and spoke a second time with Angela McAnulty.

“She told me then that she had beaten (Jeanette) — whipped her and just got carried away,” Lynn Mc­Anulty said. She said her son was the person who ultimately called medics to the home off River Road to report that Jeanette was not breathing.

McAnulty was at Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend in Springfield on Dec. 9 — the night Jeanette died. She said she wanted to see her stepgranddaughter’s body, but law enforcement officials at the scene convinced her otherwise.

She mentioned that on Dec. 4 — five nights before Jeanette died — her son phoned her to say that he was upset because he had found the girl drinking from a toilet.

“I told him, ‘She needs your help, and you need to get her some help,’” she said. “I said, ‘You’re going to go to jail for this sort of thing.’ My son is not innocent, and he knows it.”

Richard McAnulty’s cousin, Mary Freeman, said she introduced him to Angela after both women met nearly 13 years ago in a Catholic-run maternity home for unwed mothers in California.

Freeman recalled that Angela McAnulty complied with all of a judge’s requirements to regain custody of Jeanette after the girl and her two older brothers were removed from their Sacramento home in the mid-1990s.

“She did good, but she shouldn’t have gotten her back,” said Freeman, who now lives in Texas.

Freeman said Angela McAnulty always had a short fuse when it came to Jeanette, even when the girl was very young. She said Angela McAnulty would pull Jeanette’s hair when she became angry with her, and stuff hot peppers in her mouth when she caught her in a lie.

“I always told (Angela), ‘If you can’t handle Jeanette, give her to me,’ ” Freeman said. “I should have taken her a long time ago.”

Lynn McAnulty said she has no idea why Jeanette — and not the other two children — allegedly suffered the brunt of abuse at home.

Following Jeanette’s death, the job of clearing out the McAnultys’ rented home in Eugene fell to her. She has photographs of the cluttered house’s interior, including some that show cupboards filled with food.

JesusfuckingChrist. Drinking from the toilet. That’s what that poor child had to resort to after being beaten so badly. Unfortunately for her, since the state dropped the ball, death was the better option.

I really hope these two are convicted and sentenced to the maximum – which is still too good for what they really deserve.

For three years, people in Jeanette’s life tried to get child welfare authorities involved, to no avail. Her step-grandmother, a concerned parent of a friend and educators all called the state Department of Human Services because she was bruised, constantly hungry and said she had been beaten at home.

Though police and prosecutors have released few details about the case, citing an ongoing criminal investigation, Jeanette’s relatives, friends and former teachers say she died a horrific death at her Eugene home after being starved and abused for years.

Her mother, Angela McAnulty, 41, and stepfather, Richard McAnulty, 40, have been charged with aggravated murder as a result of “intentional maiming and torture.” Both could face the death penalty if convicted, and both have pleaded not guilty.

DHS officials won’t comment, because they’ve convened a critical incident response team review to examine how the agency handled the case. The internal inquiry is expected to wrap up this month.

Jeanette, a quiet, dark-haired girl who sought refuge in books at her school’s library, tried unsuccessfully to hide her injuriesduring her middle school years, friends recalled. But many days when she got into her clothes for gym class, friends saw bruises on her abdomen and legs, which she said came from falling.

One classmate, Amber Davis, wouldn’t accept Jeanette’s explanations about her injuries and pressed her for the truth.

“She told me her mom was abusing her when we were in seventh grade,” said Davis, 15, one of Jeanette’s closest friends during her years at Cascade Middle School.

Davis told her parents and school officials about Jeanette’s bruises in 2007, and they contacted the state’s child welfare office in Eugene. Cascade Middle School officials, who didn’t want to be identified because of the ongoing investigations, say they contacted the DHS at least twice while Jeanette was a student.

Signs of trouble
People who know Angela McAnulty, Jeanette’s mother, describe her as a high-strung and controlling woman who made little money, once lived in her car, and isolated her children from others.

In Sacramento in 1995, McAnulty lost custody of Jeanette, who was then 1 year old, and the girl’s two older brothers because of suspected abuse and neglect. The children’s father, Anthony Maples, was in prison for drug offenses and had little contact with his children.

In a phone interview, Anthony Maples said his two sons, Jeanette’s brothers, grew up in foster care after they wrote a letter to the family court judge overseeing their case pleading to not be sent back to their mother.

Jeanette spent 5 1/2 years in foster care in Sacramento before she was returned to her mother in 2001, Anthony Maples said.

By that time, Angela McAnulty, who was a cashier at a discount store, had another daughter. Sometime after being reunited with Jeanette, Angela met Richard McAnulty, a truck driver, and the two were married in 2002.

Angela and Richard had a son, and the family moved to Eugene in late 2005, according to Lynn McAnulty, Richard’s mother.

Jeanette started at Cascade Middle School in the middle of her sixth-grade year in 2006. Her mother sent her there in ratty sweatpants and an old yellowing T-shirt, and children made fun of her, her friends said.

Despite the teasing about her clothing and appearance, friends said, Jeanette loved school. She liked writing and reading poetry and being away from home.

But there were signs of serious trouble. Jeanette was constantly hungry, and each day when it was time to go home, her demeanor changed, friends said. She became sad, withdrawn and anxious. Her mother was strict, they said, and wouldn’t allow friends to call her or let Jeanette visit their homes or invite them over.

“Once the bell rang to go home, you could see she didn’t want to go,” said Karina Mora, 15, a friend from middle school who attended her funeral.

Amber Davis said Jeanette confessed that her mother beat her after Davis pushed her to explain the repeated injuries. She encouraged her friend to get help, but Jeanette feared that would enrage her mother.

“She got scared and said she didn’t want her mom to take her out of school because she thought things would get worse,” Davis remembered.

Davis then told her mother, Holly Sams, who called the DHS office in Eugene.

Sams said child welfare screeners downplayed her concerns and told her secondhand accounts of abuse were not sufficiently serious to send social workers out. So Sams told her daughter to enlist officials at Cascade Middle School, which she did.

One school official who asked not to be named and who spoke at Jeanette’s funeral said: “We cared about her. We did what we could, and we fed her.”

Noticing a little interest in this story “behind the curtain” here at CC, I thought I should do a follow-up to see if something has changed. As far as I could find, nothing has happened in the courtroom but changes are being made to the CPS “system”.

It seems Janette fell through the cracks because she was an “older” child. I don’t give a fuck how old she was…she was tortured, maimed, and starved to death only weighing 50 pounds. She was 15-years-old. I really want her mother and step-father to be tortured to a near-death…repeatedly…

I am most sure they will be. God would never let this go unpunished. Iv been to Hell. Iv seen the demons faces and heard Satan’s blood chilling laugh. They will be tortured far worse than what happened to this poor girl. They will endure it for all eternity over, and over, and over again. They will scream to God to take pity on them, but it will come to nothing. They will commit eternal suicide only to be reborn in that condemned place only for the torture to start again. I am by no means a Jesus Freak, but God himself did send me to hell once when I was extremely suicidal. It was a vision, but i saw it all and then some. I heard everything, and saw things. I would not wish Hell on my worst enemy. The images I saw that night will forever be ingrained in my head.

This woman will never make through prison. I agree with trying for the death sentence for her but honestly jail WILL be her death sentence. People (including convicts of all types) highly frown upon people that pray on children. She will not go unpunished. I almost want to commit some crime myself so I can go to jail and personally rid the world of this bitch. BUT I am a wonderful mother and cannot be incarcerated and away from my babies therefore I will have to patiently wait for some “saintly criminal” to do the deed.

It’s against the odds that they’ll put this bitch in general population because of the fact she tortured her daughter to death. And when I saw an influx of “views” lately on this story, I looked to see if there was an update. I was sickened at the details that were released. This poor girl endured so much horror/torture. I’m all for Richard and Angela receiving the same.

I just do not understand.. First there were people alone with her for her to confide in.. I would have kept her.. Bring on the police I am a kidnapper go get the fucking CPS.. I am calling my lawyer better go get you one too.. I think that may have been the only reason they would have taken notice.. How about a hospital?? Grandmother alone with child, confess abuse wieghing a tiny 50 lbs.. We all know a Dr.. would have called!! I find these crimes unthinkable.. And omly hope the other children did not witness this.. I would hope like hell they do not turn out the same..

I don’t believe “grandma” saw Janette for a span of time preceding her death. I say this because of one of the follow-up articles – she wanted to see Janette after she died and was discouraged from doing so by the police because she’d wasted away to 50 pounds.

We can all play the “could’a” “should’a” “would’a” game and it’s very VERY easy to do. However, working in the medical field and emergency response field, I know first hand, “hindsight is 20/20”

Situations like “this” frighten people to their soul – they’re destitute – they turn for comfort to the ones who’re to make these things better. Law teaches us our hands are truly tied. This is probably one of the worst cases of “falling through the cracks” I’ve covered. (I am sure there’s worse)

I can lay no blame on the grandmother’s lap. Actually, I commend her for standing in Janette’s corner against her own son. That is rare. Seldom do we see, once the chips are on the table, a family member (especially a parent) assist the police with the investigation against their child. Instead, they come up with some form of “justification” as to why their child/loved one acted as they did or just out and out denial of participation. She did not do this.

The fault lies with the savage and barbaric actions of Angela and Richard McAnulty. CPS helped perpetuate the murder by not performing their duties. I am all for bringing these worthless fucks drawing a paycheck up on charges since there’s a paper trail of their total disregard to the situation AND lack of follow-through. Don’t just start firing them – they’ll find another job to fuck up. Start charging them. Serious charges, too. Until there’s a real personal threat for these leeches on society, things are not going to change.

One more thing, Fed Up brought up the other children. It’s a sad statistic but most children in these situations participate in the abuse to save themselves. We’ve covered a few – where children were made to go in and beat on the one abused child – it’s often a family event. All of these children have deep psychological problems and most of them followed through with the abuse to avoid having the same thing done to them. I’ll have to hunt through for the example I’m thinking of – it was one of those cases I’ve tried to block from my memory but unfortunately, glimpses are seeping back…

If a police officer did what the CPS workers did, all hell would break loose, but no, CPS always gets a free pass and is held to no standards. Is that because children, like animals, don’t really have any rights in this country? Society as a whole dropped the ball on this one. Of coarse that doesn’t excuse the two sadistic individuals who tortured and murdered this poor girl, but it’s appalling to think the only hope some children may have is the system, and they don’t care enough to even leave their desks and do their jobs. It’s sad beyond words.

I have been watching Deadly Women on ID TV and the young teenager Jeanette who was tortured by her mother and stepfather. From the beginning of this story my skin has been crawling this is disgusting and before I searched it out I hope they got the death penalty. I don’t know how she got away with this for so long. It is so hard to believe but she wasn’t turned in sooner. Shame on the system for every child that is murdered by their parents or guardians. As I create this comment I am crying for this child. The death penalty is still too good for them…soooo sad and heartbreaking.